Buccal pumping

From open-encyclopedia.com - the free encyclopedia.

Buccal puming is a method of cyclicly ventilating the lungs through the use of the throat muscles. Animals enganged in this will typically move the floor of the mouth of throat in a rythmic manner that is externally apparent.

This method has several stages. These will be described for an animal starting with lungs in a deflated state: First, the glottis (opening to the lungs) is closed, and the nostrils are opened. The floor of the mouth is then depressed (lowered), drawing air in. The nostrils are then closed, the glottis opened, and the floor of mouth raised, forcing the air into the lungs. To deflate the lungs, the process is reversed.

This method of ventilation is inefficient, but is nontheless used by all air-breathing amphibians and is utilized to a varying extent by various reptile species.